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East Galleries, 216
Alvar Aalto 阿爾瓦．阿爾托
Armchair, model 31 扶手椅，31型
designed 1932, made circa 1935
The Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto developed this armchair, known as model 31, in 1932. The chair is part of a series of furniture intended for one of Aalto’s most important early projects, a tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, in south-western Finland. In addition to armchairs, lounges, and stools, Aalto designed sinks, doorknobs, and noise-reducing walls for the complex, rethinking each architectural element to serve patient well-being.
Armchair 31 marks an important transition in Aalto’s furniture, from the integration of tubular metal to the almost exclusive use of moulded laminated wood. Its sinuous frame, made of bent birch, has no back; the material’s strength allows for its striking cantilevered shape while suggesting flexibility and comfort. The thin plywood seat seems draped over this base structure, its gentle curves responding to the body. The seat can be painted white or black, lacquered, or veneered, as it appears here, in ‘curly’-grained birch.
The shift to a single material produced a lighter product and simplified manufacturing processes, an active interest of Aalto’s. At the same time, the use of bent wood in furniture like Armchair 31 introduced a warmer, curve-driven formal language to an internationalising European modernism without sacrificing its emphasis on function.
Armchair 31 marks an important transition in Aalto’s furniture, from the integration of tubular metal to the almost exclusive use of moulded laminated wood. Its sinuous frame, made of bent birch, has no back; the material’s strength allows for its striking cantilevered shape while suggesting flexibility and comfort. The thin plywood seat seems draped over this base structure, its gentle curves responding to the body. The seat can be painted white or black, lacquered, or veneered, as it appears here, in ‘curly’-grained birch.
The shift to a single material produced a lighter product and simplified manufacturing processes, an active interest of Aalto’s. At the same time, the use of bent wood in furniture like Armchair 31 introduced a warmer, curve-driven formal language to an internationalising European modernism without sacrificing its emphasis on function.
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